Tuesday, May 26, 1998 Last modified at 12:48 a.m. on Tuesday, May 26, 1998

Plan to raze air base homes angers residents

KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AP) - Families given 90 days to move out of soon-to-be-demolished housing at this Albuquerque base are upset.

"It disrupts the whole family," said Julia Marles, who lives on base with her military husband and four children. "Hardly anybody knew they were going to do this. ... It was like there was a deliberate attempt to keep it from (us) until the last minute."

Kirtland Air Force Base plans to demolish hundreds of military housing units and let a private contractor manage the rest.

The plan is part of a Pentagon initiative to replace dilapidated military housing. The Kirtland homes that will be torn down are at least 20 years old; some are 50 years old.

Once the move is complete, senior enlisted personnel and many officers will be required to live in private housing off base, said Col. Lavon Alston, the 377th Air Base Wing civil engineering group commander overseeing the plan. The 377th is Kirtland's host wing.

The demolition, which could begin in the next few weeks, will eliminate nearly half of the base's 2,036 single family homes, duplexes and townhomes, said 377th officials.

Retired Air Force Lt. General Leo Marquez of Albuquerque, who once headed up Pentagon housing privatization plans, said the action is needed to keep up the nation's military forces in the face of declining defense budgets.

He said the 377th could have done a better job of keeping residents informed, but added: "When you're talking about tearing down people's homes, there's never an easy way to tell people that."

Alston said the base cannot afford to maintain the housing.

But Debbie Wagers, who moved last year with her officer husband and three children to Kirtland, said her family was told demolition wouldn't occur for five years.

"Then, three or four weeks ago, we were told that we had to move out within 90 days," she said.

Alston said his office probably did tell some families they could stay a few more years. But, he said, that was before the 377th started formulating its demolition plan and studying privatization.

"That is just part of the way of doing business," he said. "We can't predict what's going to happen all the time."